Thank you for joining me on this journey. I'm going to take a bit of a break from writing and posting to work on some other projects in my life, but I will be back in due time.

Epilogue

It would be nice to say that the Darcys never had any disagreements after that disaster of a Mother's Day, that Elizabeth especially had grown from that experience. But in fact, they disagreed like all married couples do, and sometimes it was her fault and sometimes his, but in general they were quicker to share what was really bothering them, and one or the other might call "time out" and try to find out whether the other one was tired, hungry, etc. Sometimes doing so seemed to engender greater anger, and at other times that person, if not too riled up, could take stock and perhaps deal with the underlying issue. In general, they were happy with each other, perhaps happier than they deserved to be.

Elizabeth did try to be less self-centered when it came to her own issues, to recognize that the people around them were dealing with their own problems and needed her support, just like sometimes she needed theirs, and with time became a better and more thoughtful friend to Charlotte and a kinder neighbor to Mrs. Lima.

With William's encouragement, Elizabeth began to write down the melodies that played in her head, and she could often be found singing. She sang as she changed Liam, rocked him, and even while just taking care of cleaning around the house. Liam loved to hear his mother sing, and the big smiles and the way he would bounce and sway to his favorite tunes never failed to encourage her.

But of course, when Elizabeth was busy writing, she needed uninterrupted time off of mom duty. Usually, it was William that took over, taking Liam to the park, or later when he was a bit bigger, down to the lake to hunt for critters by the shore, or out in a little boat. Jane, Mary, and Charlotte were happy to help out as their schedules allowed, and even Grandpa Tom Bennet and Mrs. Lima could be called upon for assistance on occasion, but Elizabeth and William called upon them less often than they could have, never wanting to put them out.

It took about five years, by which time Elizabeth was pregnant with her second child (her middle slightly thickening), before she began regularly performing locally. Elizabeth wanted to have enough original songs and confidence. She sang at open mic events, she tried out for local outdoor concerts, and even was booked as a traveling troubadour at a local amusement park, singing as she strolled around, with a man with an acoustic guitar accompanying her. She had no great success at this juncture, but for having gotten an agent by then, one Tommy McNamara, who was willing to shop her demo around. Elizabeth enjoyed performing on this lower level and saw the practical trouble of achieving any great success when soon she would want to take a hiatus to care for her new child.

Elizabeth was surprised then, when she was almost eight months pregnant, to receive a call from Tommy that a major record label was interested in meeting with her. As Liam was in kindergarten, the Darcys decided that William would remain home to keep Liam on his schedule, and that Jane would travel with Elizabeth so she did not have to be traveling alone, just in case something happened (that way Charles could stay with little Rachel and Simon, their four and two-year-old, the latter of which had just finished being weaned). Rather than be stuck on a plane with a very pregnant Elizabeth, the sisters opted to drive out to Nashville over two days.

Elizabeth was nervous in the studio waiting room and asked her sister to come into the meeting with the executives and her agent. The meeting, though, ended up being a bust. Not did an obnoxious executive say, "I was hoping, I was wrong, but you just don't have the right look to get the male fan base; the best we can offer you is a little money for your written catalogue, as someone else might be able to do something with your songs. And given that you are all over the place in genre, folk, rock, pop, country, blues and what have you, your songs are not a cohesive enough sound for a single artist anyway." He gestured at Jane and said, "Now that's more of the look we would want." He turned toward her and with a honeyed tongue asked "Are you a vocalist, too? I'd love to hear what you've got. If we could just have her looks and perhaps just Ms. Darcy's pop songs . . . ."

In those moments, Elizabeth got a certain confirmation that perhaps it wasn't just her mom who saw Jane as superior to her in every way. She stood, trying to hold back her tears, thinking that Jane might rightly jump at this chance and if Jane wanted it she might let her sister have her songs, only to hear Jane declare (as she stood up as well) "I'm not any kind of a singer compared with Elizabeth, but even if I were, I could never sing the songs she writes with her emotion, and besides, I would never want to work with someone like you, who can discount real talent because a vocalist happens to be pregnant and not fit some stupid stereotype of what you think the perfect fan magnet would be. Come on, let's go Lizzy, they don't deserve any of your songs."

They drove off without even stopping to talk to their agent, Jane in the driver's seat. Elizabeth's agent called them right away, and on speakerphone apologized profusely. Elizabeth, who had by then gotten herself under better regulation declared, "Don't worry too much, Tommy, it has put me in a bad mood, but I will laugh it off eventually."

"Maybe so, but it wasn't right of them to waste your time, especially right now. I thought that executive might offer some word of apology, but he just wanted to discuss with me whether there might be a way to pull off a Singing in the Rain type switcheroo."

"What?" Jane had no idea what Tommy was talking about, but Elizabeth did.

"You mean, like Jane would be the face of some of my music, and at any concerts would lip sync to my songs?" Elizabeth asked, visualizing how the pretty actress who couldn't talk or sing well, was replaced by another actress's voice.

"Yes, exactly. You'd still get songwriting credits of course. I didn't think you'd be interested, at all, but of course it is my job to convey all offers to you," Tommy replied.

"Nope, I would never do that to Elizabeth," Jane declared emphatically.

"Maybe it isn't such a bad idea, if Jane has the sort of look that will sell my music," Elizabeth practically reasoned aloud. "I mean, my sister did the pageant circuit, was first runner-up in our state."

"No Lizzy," Jane stated emphatically. "I say you start releasing your music on your own, make a fancy website for it. There are plenty of women singers who make it without conforming to some standard look and if you get enough plays, someone in the industry will start to pay attention."

"That's not a bad idea," Tommy confirmed. "We can set up a website, and if you can pay for a video shoot and other content, we can start building your profile up. It is always up to a certain amount of chance and luck, but in a way the music industry is more democratic in that anyone can get themselves seen and heard."

Elizabeth let herself feel down for a couple of hours, but then a song started percolating in her head, and by the time they returned home, Elizabeth had the whole thing done, working out the tune with a keyboard app on her phone.

When William heard what had happened, he was all for helping his wife self-promote. Her original demo had been made on the cheap, as she hadn't wanted to waste money, but William arranged for a premium studio space and hired the best studio musicians to back her up (although of course Elizabeth being Elizabeth, brought in as many family members and friends as she could where they could add something to the song. Thus, Jane and Lydia each had backing vocals on a couple of tunes, Mary and Georgiana played on some other songs, and Elizabeth even wrote a part for William's deep bass voice. In a whirlwind of activity, Elizabeth cut a professional album in the last month that would be her own.

Charlotte, who had a lot of social media savvy (she had a successful channel, promoting her cats, that generated some respectable income), arranged to shoot some video of Elizabeth in the studio, performing in all her almost nine-months pregnant glory. She brought Elizabeth a gorgeous magenta maternity dress and Jane did Elizabeth's makeup. Thus, Elizabeth, with just the audience of her family and closest friends, was recorded singing her heart out the song she had written on the way home from the meeting: "Studio Execs Can Rot in Hell."

The lyrics included such gems as "They say men won't want to see me sing, women won't want to be me, but I've got lyrics in my heart and pipes to sing them, don't you mess with me, you hear? I'll sing for those that want to hear, and no one's gonna stop me." "Lightning in my veins and thunder in my throat, gotta tell my story or I'm gonna explode. They can't put me in a box, or sub a pretty face for me. These songs are mine and that's no joke, when I'm a success, you can all go and choke. No one's gonna get me down. So long as my hubby and son love my songs, I'll get along even if I end up broke."

The results were extraordinary, and Charlotte began posting content on all the social media accounts she had created for her friend. No one expected much to come from it, but something about Elizabeth singing her heart out with all the vim and vigor while so evidently pregnant struck a cord with working women everywhere, after a famous celebrity mom who had been questioned about her ability to keep up with the industry with the birth of her fourth and fifth children (a set of fraternal twins), reposted Elizabeth's song with the comment "Women can be extraordinary. Keep it up Elizabeth Darcy!" That led to a huge surge in visits to Elizabeth's website, song downloads and even some clips of that video being featured on some celebrity news magazines.

But Elizabeth didn't see it when everything blew up all in one day, because she was busy giving birth to her second son, who they named Owen. In the hospital maternity suite, while William was down in the cafeteria getting himself a meal, imagine Elizabeth's surprise when while nursing her son she flipped on the T.V. to the local news only to see her own name and picture featured, as the newscaster said "Local singer Elizabeth Darcy's website crashed after millions of new fans tried to find the video of her anthem "Studio Execs Can Rot in Hell" following numerous shares of the tiktoc clip of her singing proudly while eight months pregnant. When we reached out to Elizabeth for comment, we learned that she was off to the hospital for the birth of her new child. We wish them well and hope to get her in for an interview soon."

With trembling fingers Elizabeth called William. "It's happening. I can't believe it. Charlotte is a miracle worker." She then explained what she had just seen.

While of course Elizabeth feared she might be a one-hit wonder, it didn't work that way at all. Hearing one of her songs led for an appetite for more and her whole album was receiving thousands of downloads an hour, with not much tapering of the demand over the next month. Everyone was clamoring for interviews, to have her sing on air. So it was, that with Owen in a front pack, just a few weeks old, that Elizabeth sang her hit on a morning news magazine show, leading to another huge surge in downloads. Online comments with the hashtag #FierceMomSinger trended, and the website crashed again.

Of course, there were detractors that said she appeared with her baby in a front pack just because she was trying to use him for publicity. However, the morning news show executives, seeing a way to capitalize on all the publicity, released raw footage that showed Elizabeth starting to sing the song without her baby, only for loud crying to be heard in the background. Elizabeth excused herself apologetically, and said she'd be right back. Then a camera followed her as she went backstage to see to her baby, who William was trying his darndest to soothe. William offered to leave, but Elizabeth said she'd see what she could do. Little Owen quieted in her arms, but screamed when she tried to return him to his daddy. Elizabeth said to the camera, "I'm sorry, and don't want to let you down, but I don't think I can perform today." Then a female executive on the show asked, "Do you think you could sing while wearing your baby?" This new video of the backstory ended up being reposted more times that the original performance.

Elizabeth's success never went to her head and her family and friends were happy for her, although no one who was featured on her album wanted to tour with her (she didn't tour at all until Owen was two, and then for only very limited dates, not wanting to be away from her husband or children for long, or to disrupt their schedules too much when they did join her), at least no one but Lydia. Elizabeth soon had to insist that Lydia not come with her, for she just wanted to trade on Elizabeth's success to fool around with as many men as possible.

Lydia was resentful about being left in the dust and bemoaned over and over that she should have been the star, or at least gotten to sing backup on the big hit. She seemed to have taken to heart her mother's praise of her as being objectively true and could not seem to understand that it took more than beauty and liveliness to achieve success.

Lydia actually managed to get a record deal for herself trading on her sister's celebrity, but as she could neither write songs, nor sing all that well (and couldn't take the trouble to try to improve on either), she never got much play. She did do a round of talk shows, however, trying to provide the real scoop on Elizabeth's success, that was nothing but a bunch of self-aggrandizing lies. This stint didn't last long after Elizabeth was forced to appear herself to explain the real story.

Elizabeth found that whole experience painful, but at least she had the support of her husband and the rest of her sisters.

Charlotte did so well with Elizabeth's website that she was able to go into website marketing full-time and seldom had time to stay home with her cats. In the process of promoting Eliabeth and other artists, she eventually met a single man who did video production. Hal, while not as tall, handsome or rich as William Darcy, was an awfully nice guy. They made a go of it and within six months they were married and within two months of the wedding, Charlotte surprised herself by getting pregnant right away even though she was pushing forty. That was the only child they had, but Charlotte was content because her daughter, Arabella, did not lack for cousins near her age (or honorary cousins from the Bennet sisters).

All in all, Elizabeth and William, and the rest of the family, had a good life, and very little to regret.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed getting a little glimpse into the next chapter in Elizabeth's life. Were you surprised how it all turned out?